Earlier, we have covered some tutorials: 1.How to install windows XP From USB Drive 2. How to install Windows 7 From USB Drive. Both the processes work fine and the readers feedback was positive. But there were some drawbacks with those procedures: 1. Previous methods of creating of the bootable USB drive for Windows XP involves numbers of steps and takes lot of time to complete. 2. You are to use the similar Operating System to prepare the USB disk. i.e if you want to prepare your USB drive to install Windows XP, you’ll have to use Windows XP to apply the preparation method. The similar condition is applicable when preparing the USB drive for Windows 7. 3. Those methods do not have any option to prepare the USB disk in such a way that it would install both Windows XP and Windows 7 after spending one time effort. But we found an awesome free utility WinSetupFromUSB which comes across drawbacks and allows you to create a Multiboot USB drive to install Windows XP and Windows 7 from the same USB drive. No need to prepare your USB stick separately. Even the tool works in both Windows XP and Windows 7. Creating the Multiboot USB Drive for Windows 7 and XP Creating the multiboot USB drive is too easy and involves four simple steps. Before getting into the process, make sure that the USB drive that you have, is minimum 4 GB of volume (recommended 8 GB) and formatted with FAT32 file system. Once you are ready, downloadWinSetupFromUSB and extract at any location of your computer.
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Transcript
Earlier, we have covered some tutorials: 1.How to install windows XP From
USB Drive 2. How to install Windows 7 From USB Drive. Both the processes
work fine and the readers feedback was positive. But there were some
drawbacks with those procedures:
1. Previous methods of creating of the bootable USB drive for Windows XP
involves numbers of steps and takes lot of time to complete.
2. You are to use the similar Operating System to prepare the USB disk. i.e if
you want to prepare your USB drive to install Windows XP, you’ll have to use
Windows XP to apply the preparation method. The similar condition is
applicable when preparing the USB drive for Windows 7.
3. Those methods do not have any option to prepare the USB disk in such a
way that it would install both Windows XP and Windows 7 after spending one
time effort.
But we found an awesome free utility WinSetupFromUSB which comes
across drawbacks and allows you to create a Multiboot USB drive to install
Windows XP and Windows 7 from the same USB drive. No need to prepare
your USB stick separately. Even the tool works in both Windows XP and
Windows 7.
Creating the Multiboot USB Drive for Windows 7 and XP
Creating the multiboot USB drive is too easy and involves four simple steps.
Before getting into the process, make sure that the USB drive that you have,
is minimum 4 GB of volume (recommended 8 GB) and formatted with FAT32
file system. Once you are ready, downloadWinSetupFromUSB and extract at
Finally, put XP-Softslas (or whatever you want) as Drive Label and
click Start.
A message appears and click Yes.
Another message box will again appear and click Yes.
Immediate after that the USB disk will be formatted. Wait for few seconds
and then click on “Ok” and “Close”.
3. Open the windows Command prompt by typing cmd at the Run box. The
cmd.exe console appears.
Now type the following syntax and hit the Enter button from your keyboard.
cd c:softslasbootsect
Again, type the following command and press “Enter”.
bootsect /nt52 I:
Type “cd..” and press “Enter” and also type cd usb_prep8 and press Enter.
Now type usb_prep8 and press “Enter”.
4. Press any key to continue.
Now the command prompt window will look like this.
Prepares Windows XP LocalSource for Copy to USB-Drive:
0) Change Type of USB-Drive, currently [USB-stick]
1) Change XP Setup Source Path, currently []
2) Change Virtual TempDrive, currently [T:]
3) Change Target USB-Drive Letter, currently []
4) Make New Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive
5) Use Existing Tempimage with XP LocalSource and Copy to USB-Drive
F) Change Log File – Simple OR Extended, currently [Simple]
Q) Quit
Enter your choice:_
Insert the XP installation CD in you CD/DVD ROM and in command prompt
window, type 1 and press “Enter”. A “Browse For Folder” window will appear
and here select the CD/DVD drive and then click OK.
Similarly, for the choice field enter 2 and if there assigned the letter “T”
for your computer then change it otherwise do not alter it. After typing 2 in
the choice option it will prompt “Enter Available Virtual Drive Letter”.
Here, type a letter that is not any drive letter of your computer.
Let us say S is not a drive letter in your computer. So put S then press
“Enter”.
Now it will get back to the Command prompt and then type 3 where it
prompts for the choice. Then it will prompt “Please give Target USB-Drive
Letter e.g type U”.
Now, put your USB drive letter and press “Enter”. Here, my USB drive label is
“I” so I put “I”.
Again, input 4 and press Enter. It creates the new temporary image and
makes a copy of it to the USB Flash Drive .
Please wait for a few seconds..
A warning message will appear like this:
“WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE T: WILL BE LOST!
Proceed with Format (Y/N)?”
Type Y and press “Enter”.
Please wait………..
After completing Format it will prompt “Press any key to continue” and to
continue hit any key .
Please wait………..
It will again prompt “Press any key to continue” and obviously press any key
to continue.
5. Now a message box will appear showing
“Copy TempDrive Files to USB-Drive in about 15 minutes = Yes OR STOP =
End Program = No”
Click “Yes”.
Now after this a message box will appear showing “Would you like USB-stick
to be preferred Boot Drive U……………….”
Click “Yes”.
The next one asking “Would you like to unmount the Virtual Drive ?”
Click “Yes”.
Now wait some time and press any key…………….
Press any key again to close usb_prep8.
Now your USB you can Install Windows XP from the USB drive.
6. Insert your USB drive in the USB port and Reboot your computer. When
starts the computer enter in the BIOS Setup and set the first boot preference
as USB Hard Disk.Now Save and Exit from the BIOS Setup. Your computer will
again restart and the following screen will appear.
Now Chose The TXT Mode Setup.After completing the partition, formatting
and copying file the computer will restart again.
Now chose the GUI Mode Setup Option.
Wait for completing your installation.
I think this will help you to install XP from USB flash disk/drive especially in
those computer without CD/DVD-ROM.
Thanks Cahya.
Having a bootable USB is very essential, especially if you are a Netbook user. Using bootable USB to install an operating system (OS) not only makes the installation faster, but also saves a DVD.
Creating or using an USB drive to install Windows operating systems is very easy if you follow the below mentioned steps.
If you are planning to use bootable USB to install Windows 7 or Vista please refer our guides:
Install Windows 7/Vista using bootable USB guide
And also, you can refer install Windows 7 on Acer Aspire One guide
Coming back to bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB.
1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system and backup all the data from the USB as we are going to format the USB to make it as bootable.
2. Open elevated Command Prompt. To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:
Once you enter the LIST DISK command, it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do.
SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.
6. Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:
D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature).
Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer.